Slight concern over Voidstones

Previously I was able to get all the watchstones for my atlas but I wasn't able to defeaat Maven, or the greater encounters needed to reach her. I am feeling like the Voidstone thing is going to nerf my ability to make my maps better due to locking me out of even getting the voidstones unless I follow some build I don't want to follow. I am hoping you weakened these encounters so normal people can actually get these watchstones. I really have no interest in going backwards in my ability to make my maps worth doing.

True, I have the same problem. Many players still have problems with red maps. Now they won't even be able to fully experience them. Game is moving further away from casual players, it's not good for the game. It's the beginning of the end for casual gamers. Maybe it's actually time not for hard mode but for easy mode for casuals.

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Green6 wrote:

True, I have the same problem. Many players still have problems with red maps. Now they won't even be able to fully experience them. Game is moving further away from casual players, it's not good for the game. It's the beginning of the end for casual gamers. Maybe it's actually time not for hard mode but for easy mode for casuals.

Yea, was so excited for this expansion so many things looked like it was an improvement for the QOL of casual players then they slap that on. It's one step forward three steps back. It seems they don't want casual players in their game anymore sometimes. They keep sending mixed messages.

the main difference between offline games and online games is, that the former can allow players to walk into endgame without devaluing the items dropping there for the whole community.

in online games, it's normal for casuals to be stuck in the middle of the storyline. heck, it even defines a casual player.

ggg needs to provide some playground for all the overpowered items and chase uniques so people want them in the first place. as a result, without those items and 50ex+ investment in gear and some skill you can't access that content.

that's how games work

When I read this part of the patch notes, it felt like a huge "Do not play!" instruction to me :-(

"The Watchstone system has also been removed, and replaced with Voidstones which are obtained by defeating The Uber Elder, The Maven, The Searing Exarch and The Eater of Worlds. These Voidstones raise the tiers of maps on your Atlas and can be augmented by Sextants."

Mainly it sounds like "Your map drops will suck unless you defeat the four top bosses", with the Maven fight (IMHO) being the worst boss fight design in the game...

I hated the Watchstone mechanic (though reducing it to 4 regions made it, well not better, but 'less bad'), but this sound even worse... :-(

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cronus wrote:

the main difference between offline games and online games is, that the former can allow players to walk into endgame without devaluing the items dropping there for the whole community.

Not really. Introducing a mode specifically tailored to more casually oriented players solves the problem for both factions - casuals and more dedicated players. That way, everyone can have fun.

I briefly glanced at what the expansion has to offer, and thought to myself "cool, but useless, because I won't be able to access any of it anyways". So yeah, I guess I will do the same thing I did since Ritual ended. Not play.

Also, I cannot recall the economy collapsing during either Harvest or Ritual league, which both gave clear pathways for more casual players to reach the actual endgame. Fun leagues for sure.

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Char1983 wrote:

Not really. Introducing a mode specifically tailored to more casually oriented players solves the problem for both factions - casuals and more dedicated players. That way, everyone can have fun.

Main problem GGG face is you'd be splitting the player base, requiring two different trade markets.
One would have a lot more players than the other, meaning the trade market in the small one would not actually have enough items.

Guess i will first watch some streams and check if they rebalanced the boss fights but my gut feeling says otherwise.

Will maybe sit this one out as an SSF player and see how they balance it longterm.

I mean there are some red maps without Voidstones but i guess they will have bad layouts, like indoor maps or maze likes.

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Char1983 wrote:

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cronus wrote:

the main difference between offline games and online games is, that the former can allow players to walk into endgame without devaluing the items dropping there for the whole community.

Not really. Introducing a mode specifically tailored to more casually oriented players solves the problem for both factions - casuals and more dedicated players. That way, everyone can have fun.

I briefly glanced at what the expansion has to offer, and thought to myself "cool, but useless, because I won't be able to access any of it anyways". So yeah, I guess I will do the same thing I did since Ritual ended. Not play.

Also, I cannot recall the economy collapsing during either Harvest or Ritual league, which both gave clear pathways for more casual players to reach the actual endgame. Fun leagues for sure.

it's a personal impression but i don't think harvest and ritual enabled the majority of players to walk into endgame and farm the latest bosses. but it helped those players who like to sell services or use them alot, if you think this is the majority, you're right.
i played harvest alot but couldn't even spawn the harvest boss.

so yeah, siege of the atlas only improved late endgame again, will play it casually for the funsies but i'm afraid that for improvements for casuals we have to wait for poe2.

My understanding is that the first time you fight the 2 new bosses, they will each be on a lower level of difficulty vs. Maven (I'd guess around a 4-watchstone conqueror). Additionally, it seems you will have no problems getting to T16 w/o any voidstones (since the base atlas starts with some) plus you can still get an overwhelming majority of the passives for the new atlas tree w/o them as well (we're talking ~90% of the power of a current completed atlas w/o being able to do any of the difficult end content). All the power watchstones gave and then some is now instead on this atlas tree.

In other words, compared to pre-3.17, you now have access to Uncharted Atlas power (because those are on the tree) much earlier in your atlas progression (something I'd bet most casuals never got to play with). You can also choose to heavily spec into map drops, league mechanics, whatever you like in the atlas tree.

There are literally 3 things you cannot do until you have a voidstone:

1) Use sextants. (If you can barely handle the higher content, you probably aren't using too much of these anyway).

2) Get all of your favorite map slots unlocked.

3) Make more maps T16.

If these bother you, buy a boss service. Those bosses each only need to be beat once as well, so you aren't constantly buying services or anything.

I honestly cannot find a single thing this change makes worse for casuals so I really don't see how this is a step back.